WVBT Raises Ante In Norfolk Digital Battle
Web users in Norfolk, Va., who want to get their entertainment news around a virtual water cooler have found their man — Tracie Paige. He’s the bubbly host of “The Face of Fox Daily,” an online-only program shown on Fox43TV.com, the Web presence of LIN Television-owned Fox affiliate WVBT-TV.
During one recent segment, Paige chimed in with the latest celebrity gossip, then urged viewers to continue the discussion on his Twitter site and remember to tune in to the latest episode of American Idol later that evening. Periodically, the husky “entertainment ambassador” appears on the TV station’s regular news show to recount his other escapades about town, including shaking it in a local dance studio’s Zumba class.
Paige isn’t just peppy, he’s one of the newest tools in WVBT-TV’s arsenal as the station attempts to draw more viewers — and more advertisers — online. He and the station’s lineup of programs are “designed for a younger demographic and more social networking based demographic,” said Doug Davis, president and GM of the station and its affiliates.
Paige’s daily online show is just part of what is happening in greater Norfolk as television stations and newspapers go prospecting for digital success.
Locals call the waterway-laced Southeastern section of Virginia that is home to more than 1.9 million “Hampton Roads;” research firm Nielsen calls it the nation’s 43rd largest media market.
A variety of media outlets dot the sprawling community that encompasses five counties. The largest is the Landmark Media Enterprises-owned Virginian-Pilot and its PilotOnline.com and HamptonRoads.com sites. Together, they attracted 727,000 visitors combined in December 2011, according to Internet marketing research company comScore.
Hampton Roads also has a second newspaper, the Tribune Co.-owned Daily Press. It does business online as DailyPress.com and received 503,000 unique visitors during the period, according to comScore.
On the television side, the region’s heavyweight is WAVY-TV, an NBC affiliate that operates online as WAVY.com. LIN owns that station, along with Paige’s WVBT-TV and the group’s VirginiaPolitics.tv site. Together they pulled in 416,000 visitors in December 2011, according to comScore.
Rounding out the media lineup is ABC affiliate WVEC.com, which his owned by Belo Corp. and drew 199,000 viewers. And WTKR-TV, a CBS affiliate owned by Oak Hill Capital Partners and doing business as WTKR.com, registered 182,000 unique visitors during the period, comScore said.
What’s happening online is of keen interest to the area’s media. Online revenue for television stations in Norfolk will rise 65% — from $3.5 million in 2011 to $5.8 million in 2015 — according to estimates from Mark Fratrik, VP at media research firm BIA/Kelsey.
Local online ad spending will also rise, from $133.7 million in 2011 to $225.6 million in 2016, according to research firm Borrell Associates.
The U.S. military is a major economic force in the region, which has attracted tens of thousands of people with military ties, from enlisted personnel to contractors and retirees. One of every four of the area’s jobs is somehow connected to the armed forces, according to the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce.
That makes military-related media coverage huge news. “One of the forecasts for the next several years here is as defense spending diminishes, that can have an economic impact. That’s a news story that you want to be focused on and provide as much context about as possible,” said Davis, president and general manager of WAVY and WVBT.
Weather and traffic are major concerns in the community, which spans multiple bodies of water and covers 10 cities including Norfolk, Portsmouth and Virginia Beach. Any trouble along the extensive network of highways, bridges and tunnels needed to link the region can do a number on workday commutes. After a major ice and snowstorm hit in 2010, PilotOnline.com’s readership surged to 810,000 visitors in December 2010 according to comScore, a significant spike compared with its 727,000 visitors from December 2011.
A heavy military presence steadily attracts people from outside the region and makes the community a diverse blend of cultures and backgrounds, a perfect launch pad for information delivered by new media, said Erica Taylor, assistant professor of mass communications and journalism at Norfolk State University. As examples, she identified several independent blogs, including New Journal & Guide and TidewaterNews.com, “that are functioning almost as mini-news outlets. The independent blogs that I see popping up are becoming very popular and I notice they are getting advertising dollars.”
Conventional media are also taking note of the potential, she added: “Newspapers are posting video and television stations are posting in-depth stories online. This notion of convergence journalism is everywhere because all of the news media are so integrated today.”
Such reinvention is driving the Virginian-Pilot, where some strategies are succeeding while others have failed.
For instance, the newspaper tried to take on the region’s strong television stations — and their websites — by creating its own web television venture in 2005. However, HamptonRoads.TV never reached profitability and was closed as a standalone business.
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